I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Friday, July 6, 2007

Help! Here's somebody.

So, you know, I'm a beginning writer ("Hi, my name is Steve. It's been a day since I've committed words to the page.") I like to find things that actually help beginning writers with stuff. Thanks to all around cool guy Tobias Buckell (BTW, Tobias is an excellent source for information himself, you know, even though he's becoming a Mr. Big Deal and isn't a Joe Blow Neopro so much anymore, but he shares how he did it, which is excellent. And now he's adding his experience to this new podcast which leads me to... Where was I? Oh, yeah), I've found a new one, Adventures in SciFi Publishing. It's a website (fellow blogspot site) and a podcast. I'm downloading more as we speak. Go there. Learn. Incorporate. I'm also adding them to the bloggeroll. Thanks, Tobias! Now I need to learn those ping/trackback thingies.

4 comments:

Julia Phillips Smith said...

Looks good. I know what you mean about the pings and trackbacks. I'm so 19th century about these things.

Steve Buchheit said...

Hi, julia. Yep, I've been enjoying the last few this long afternoon at work (we're approaching 13 hours).

I think I need to email Tobias to work it out (I link to a lot on his site).

Anonymous said...

"I'm a beginning writer"..."It's been a day since I've committed words to the page"

And here I thought I was the only one ;)

(Of course, by most objective standards, I really am. Whatever, I doubt that feeling is going to change anytime soon.)

BTW: Tobias and Scalzi are my MySpace friends, that's almost as good as being my actual friends!
Sort of... Not really...

Steve Buchheit said...

Hey cosmicdog, glad to see you made your way here. My blog isn't the happenin' place that Scalzi's is.

Nope, you aren't the only one. As long as you keep at it and keep getting better, you're beyond the majority of beginning writers (most try a couple of things, don't see the need to improve, and peter out after a while). Just keep going, recognize that you will get better if you're open to critcism, keep typing and finding the way You work, that's the best thing.

Next, you'll need to go to conventions and meet them in the real space (I've met and talked with both Tobias and John - and a few others, some of which I knew their work, many I didn't, but now I do want to read their stuff, Karl Schroeder and Jim Hall I'm looking at you, they are very cool people).

Also, I always recommend Tobias' "Getting Past Being Joeblow Neopro" to new writers, especially before they go to their first convention. PNH and TNH have some advice on their "Making Light" (there's a link on the main page of my blog) for going to World Con (and applies to most cons).

But it's most important to like what you're writing and not really worrying about the market. Find the market for it later.